Hitman 2

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers a highly responsive Hitman 2 experience at mainstream resolutions, but the data reveals a sharp performance cliff as pixel count climbs. At 1920x1080, the combo is clearly CPU-bound at lower settings, with the Low preset hitting 199 FPS average and even Ultra maintaining 83 FPS. Stepping up to 2560x1440 shows a predictable scaling curve: Low drops to 127 FPS, High lands at 72 FPS, and Ultra sits at 53 FPS. The transition to 3840x2160 is where the frame rate collapses—Ultra falls to 28 FPS, High manages 38 FPS, and Medium is the only 4K preset with a recorded minimum frame time at 43 FPS (averaging 51). This pattern indicates that while the CPU has ample headroom at 1080p, the GPU becomes the limiting factor at 1440p and especially at 4K, where even the Low preset (68 FPS) barely crosses the 60 FPS threshold. The scaling from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is a 36% reduction, while the same settings drop from 1440p to 4K is 46%, confirming that the RX 7700 XT's rendering throughput is the dominant constraint at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 1410th out of 3711 tested combos for Hitman 2, placing it in the 62nd percentile of all configurations. The rank reflects the balance between the i5-14600KF's strong single-threaded performance and the RX 7700 XT's mid-range rasterization capabilities. The CPU's percentile versus all processors is 90, meaning it outperforms 90% of CPUs in synthetic benchmarks, while the GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 67, indicating a relative weakness in pure graphics throughput. This discrepancy explains why the combo's game rank (62nd percentile) sits between the two component percentiles—the GPU drags the overall result down from what the CPU alone could achieve. In synthetic comparisons, the i5-14600KF's average benchmark score of 49394 places it within 0.8% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and Intel Core Ultra 5 245, while the RX 7700 XT's average score of 22549 is within 1.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 and 1.5% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080. These close margins suggest that swapping either component for a direct rival would produce negligible changes in Hitman 2's frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo in Hitman 2?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 199, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: Is this combo capable of smooth 4K gameplay in Hitman 2?

A: At 3840x2160, the only preset that exceeds 60 FPS is Low (68 FPS average). Medium averages 51 FPS, High averages 38 FPS, and Ultra drops to 28 FPS, so smooth 4K requires significant settings compromises.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i5-14600KF's average benchmark score of 49394 is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228), 0.4% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196), and 0.8% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (48995), but 0.8% lower than the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 (49796).

Q: What is the frame time consistency at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo records an average of 96 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS and maximum of 110 FPS, showing a 29 FPS range between minimum and average.

Q: Does the GPU outperform its nearest rival in raw compute?

A: The RX 7700 XT's average benchmark score of 22549 is 1.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (22170), but 0.8% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729) and 1.5% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22895).

Q: Which resolution provides the best balance of quality and performance?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 72 FPS average, which offers a 27% performance improvement over 4K High (38 FPS) while maintaining significantly better visual fidelity than 1080p Ultra (83 FPS).

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete matrix of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces 199 FPS average, Medium produces 149 FPS (with minimum 127 and maximum 172), High produces 113 FPS, and Ultra produces 83 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 116 FPS, representing a 58% performance penalty for maximum quality settings. At 2560x1440, the same presets yield 127 FPS (Low), 96 FPS (Medium, with minimum 81 and maximum 110), 72 FPS (High), and 53 FPS (Ultra). The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 74 FPS, a 58% penalty consistent with 1080p. At 3840x2160, the results are 68 FPS (Low), 51 FPS (Medium, with minimum 43 and maximum 59), 38 FPS (High), and 28 FPS (Ultra). The Low-to-Ultra spread is 40 FPS, again a 59% penalty, showing that settings scaling remains proportional across resolutions. However, the resolution scaling is not proportional—1080p Low (199 FPS) drops 36% to 1440p Low (127 FPS), then drops another 46% to 4K Low (68 FPS). For High settings, the drops are 36% (113 to 72) and 47% (72 to 38), respectively. Medium settings show identical scaling: 149 to 96 (36%) then 96 to 51 (47%). The consistent scaling pattern across all presets indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources scale predictably with pixel count, with the 4K resolution demanding approximately four times the pixel throughput of 1080p.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is built on the Navi 32 chip using TSMC's 5 nm process, with 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 1435 MHz, with a game clock of 2171 MHz and boost clock of 2544 MHz. Its 3456 shading units, 216 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines produce a peak pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s. In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU scores 22547 in PassMark G3D (67th percentile versus all GPUs), 138383 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 46443 in Geekbench Vulkan. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's 12 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor in Hitman 2—even at 4K Ultra, the game runs within memory limits, as evidenced by the 28 FPS average rather than a crash or stutter. The GPU's 35.17 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability is sufficient for the game's engine at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results (all presets below 70 FPS) indicate that the rasterization throughput is the bottleneck at that resolution. The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals—within 1.7% of the RX 5700 and 1.5% of the RTX 2080—suggests that Hitman 2's optimization favors this class of hardware, as the scaling from 1440p to 4K closely matches the theoretical pixel count increase.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset at 83 FPS is the clear choice for users with 60 Hz or 75 Hz monitors, as it provides maximum visual quality while maintaining a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. For 1440p users, the High preset at 72 FPS offers the best balance—it delivers a 36% frame rate improvement over Ultra (53 FPS) while retaining most of the visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 96 FPS is recommended for 1440p users with 100 Hz or higher refresh rate displays, as it provides a 33% performance boost over High with only a moderate reduction in settings. At 4K, the situation is more constrained: the Low preset at 68 FPS is the only option that consistently exceeds 60 FPS, while Medium at 51 FPS is viable for users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate smoothness. The High and Ultra presets at 38 FPS and 28 FPS respectively are not recommended for 4K gameplay, as they fall below the threshold for responsive play in a stealth title where precise camera movement matters. The data shows that the Medium preset provides the most consistent frame pacing across all resolutions—it is the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values—indicating that this settings level avoids the frame time spikes that can occur at higher presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process with a 257 mm² die size. It operates at a base clock of 3.50 GHz with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, and features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. Its synthetic benchmark scores are impressive: 32544 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 4594 in Cinebench R23 single-core, and 17085 in Geekbench multi-core. The CPU's percentile versus all processors is 90, and its average benchmark score of 49394 places it within 0.8% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and Intel Core Ultra 5 245. In Hitman 2, the CPU's influence is most apparent at 1080p with Low settings, where the 199 FPS average suggests the game is CPU-bound at that configuration—the GPU is not the limiting factor when the pixel workload is low. The CPU's 5.30 GHz boost clock and strong single-threaded performance (4594 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 4273 in PassMark single-thread) are critical for Hitman 2's engine, which relies heavily on single-threaded game logic. However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU's headroom is not fully utilized at higher resolutions: at 4K Low, the frame rate drops to 68 FPS, which is only 34% of the 1080p Low result. This indicates that once the GPU becomes the bottleneck (at 1440p and above), the CPU's capabilities have minimal impact on the final frame rate. The CPU's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide flexibility for system builders, but the benchmark data suggests that for Hitman 2 specifically, the GPU choice matters more than the CPU choice within this performance class.